“I just wanted to be loved.
“More and greater love.”
People who don't have the capacity to care for someone
A story that illuminates each other's lives with hope

“Kang Seok-hee’s gaze is directed towards the shaded spot.

The virtue of this work lies in the delicacy of the hands that reveal and embrace the pain.

Even if our wounds do not heal, if someone gives us a light like a green ray
“We will not be sick anymore.”
Recommended by Oh Se-ran (literary critic)

Tomorrow's Picnic, The Tail and the Waves
A new novel by Changbi Education Coming-of-Age Novel Award winner Kang Seok-hee

The new full-length novel, "Green Ray," by Kang Seok-hee, a current Korean language teacher and winner of the Changbi Education Coming-of-Age Novel Award, has been published.
This work unfolds a hidden story by bringing in characters from the short story “Green Ray” included in the anthology “Where Does Your Right Foot Go” (by Kang Seok-hee et al.), which contains various forms of care.
The author, who began her career by winning the Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest in 2018, delicately addressed the various aspects of violence that occurred within schools in her previous work, "Tail and Wave," demonstrating a strong solidarity across generations. In "Tomorrow's Picnic," she brought to light the violence in society that a young person preparing for independence and a vocational high school student experiences during a corporate field training.
This new work continues the author's interest in social issues, showing how the lack of a social system shifts the burden of disability and care work onto individuals.
Through this, the narrative was completed with literary lyricism that allows readers to naturally think about 'disability' and 'care'.

My aunt and I had to pause for a moment in front of the apartment's common entrance.
The wheelchair access was blocked by a new coat of paint.
My aunt couldn't climb the three steps that even my short, thin legs could climb.
My aunt looked upset as she turned her back on me and exchanged messages with my mom.
A little later, my aunt told me what my mother had said about what I should eat and where I should be at home for the next two hours.
And he handed me a ten thousand won bill.
I wondered why my aunt couldn't come to our house with me.
I just sat on the sofa blankly without even touching the food my mom told me to eat.
My aunt's spine, which was sharply curved diagonally to the right, kept flashing in my mind.
I wondered if my aunt had taken the right route, which required changing buses twice, and how she had gotten here in the first place.
It was the first time in my life that I saw my aunt's back properly.

--- p.67~68

I didn't want to laugh and have fun with my aunt again like that.
I just needed a familiar, quiet, barrier-free road.
A place where Aunt doesn't have to be conscious of the slope of the ground.
A place where my aunt and I don't have to take care of each other.
We walked in silence.
It was quiet for a long time.
An uncomfortable and heavy silence.
Somehow the mountain seemed to be silent with us.
Animals that could be easily seen were not visible, and the wind was not blowing, so the trees and forest stood still like still life.
It feels like you're inside an oil painting with a rough texture.
Hot and sticky steps.
Steps.

--- p.74

Because I dropped out of school, I couldn't see those kids every day.
Instead, we met once a week and did some life trapping.
The location is Jille Park.
I decided to go to the place where I last saw Bami.
That was my opinion.
The children did so without asking why.
We've now become quite adept at handling fairly difficult objects, such as water balloons, which are easily popped, or golf balls, which have a high rebound.
Hye-young's skills improved, and she performed a trick where she chewed two pieces of bubble gum in one bite, made them into a ball, spat them out, kicked them up with her foot, and chewed them again.
It didn't look very sanitary, but it was so interesting that I asked to see it from time to time.
Hye-young said that one day she would achieve the ultimate trapping, the tofu-catching bet.
We waited and cheered for that day to come.

--- p.125~126

I went to the hospital, got counseling, and kept a journal to escape the word 'perfect,' but I still obsessed with many things.
I wanted the space I lived in with my aunt to be neat, I wanted my relationships with my friends to be strong, and I wanted to become a great person.
Will I be any different when I reach a life where I can digest a single meal? No.
Do I have to change to be able to eat a single meal? And only then will I become a single human being?
--- p.136

My well-being, eating three meals a day to take care of Bami.
I want to see the night for a long time with healthy and clear eyes.
The thought that Bami's life will be shorter than mine.
A lonely certainty based on science made me long for time with Bam-i.
This life could be Bami's last.
When I think about it that way, it becomes clear what state I should be in.
So Bami is healthy, sometimes scratches me and my aunt, and sleeps in my aunt's wheelchair every night.
Watching that scene brings me a definite sense of happiness.

--- p.167

It took a lot of time and effort to get to know Yeonju and her aunt's story.
So I often had to go back to the thoughts I had when I first wrote this novel.
This story began with a travelogue my wife and her family took in 2019, and there was one person in a wheelchair in that story.
He succeeds in discovering something he really wanted to see in the forests and mountains that are usually difficult to access.
My wife's face lit up as she recounted the memories of that day, and it felt like she had witnessed a moment she had always wanted to see, so I also held this story dear to my heart.
And over the years, that story has become an important scene for me when I think of the word 'care,' and I can't help but embrace it happily.

--- From the main text, “Author’s Note”